AirGo

Respair is kicking off the year by sharing a new project that we're proud to partner with and share with you! Welcome to Carceral Fictions & Abolitionist Realities, a series of narrative essays that reflect on emergent themes from conversations with Detroit-based organizers and futurists committed to abolition of police and prisons. This is Episode 1, entitled Alienation from Ourselves, Each Other, and Our Needs. Joined by a chorus of voices and visionaries, Detroit-based artist Lauren Williams invites us to consider roadmaps to futures we hope for, through a focus on the everyday & the contradictions of neoliberal philosophy. Should everything really be for sale, will the market protect the worthy? First, a foundation: How do our ways of working separate us from our power and possibility? What exactly is neoliberalism, how did it become the dominant social and economic logic of U.S. civil society? What does any of this have to do with abolition? To answer that last question first, it comes down to criminalization and control. Detroit’s 2013 bankruptcy and civic fights about water access serve as examples of how accepting a logic of separation weakens our ability to challenge social problems that affect people in very connected ways. Williams illuminates the short path from privatization to deprivation, before limning the difference between the state’s compulsion to watch & the human need to be seen. The series is presented in partnership with Making Room for Abolition, a body of work that imagines a world without police and prisons by making speculative worlds through the lens of a home. It was dreamed up, written and produced by Lauren Williams; essays were co-produced by Ayinde Jean-Baptiste; and the audio was engineered by Conor Anderson. Featured guests include Nick Buckingham, Curtis Renee, Tawana Petty, PG Watkins, Angel McKissic, Monica Lewis-Patrick, Nate Mullen, Sirrita Darby, Kim Sherrobi, Monique Thompson, and Myrtle Thompson-Curtis. Voice actors who read various excerpts from references are credited on each episode. Our theme music is the instrumentals from a song called Detroit Summer by Invincible and Waajeed, courtesy of Emergence Media. Full time-stamped transcripts are available at www.makingroom.online/essays. This show is presented in partnership with Respair Production & Media.

Respair is kicking off the year by sharing a new project that we're proud to partner with and share with you! Welcome to Carceral Fictions & Abolitionist Realities, a series of narrative essays that reflect on emergent themes from conversations with Detroit-based organizers and futurists committed to abolition of police and prisons. Interweaving research with brief dispatches from speculative abolitionist futures, each episode draws together the voices of people working toward food justice, water access, educational equity, restorative justice, and Black liberation to connect thematic currents surrounding the abolition of police and prisons. In each episode, we look closely at the kinds of fictions that shape our current attachments to policing, prisons, and punishment to examine where they come from and how they affect us. At the same time, you’ll hear us explore abolitionist realities that counter these fictions and open up other ways of being. The series is presented in partnership with Making Room for Abolition, a body of work that imagines a world without police and prisons by making speculative worlds through the lens of a home. It was dreamed up, written and produced by Lauren Williams; essays were co-produced by Ayinde Jean-Baptiste; and the audio was engineered by Conor Anderson. Featured guests include Nick Buckingham, Curtis Renee, Tawana Petty, PG Watkins, Angel McKissic, Monica Lewis-Patrick, Nate Mullen, Sirrita Darby, Kim Sherrobi, Monique Thompson, and Myrtle Thompson-Curtis. Voice actors who read various excerpts from references are credited on each episode. Our theme music is the instrumentals from a song called Detroit Summer by Invincible and Waajeed, courtesy of Emergence Media. Full time-stamped transcripts are available at www.makingroom.online/essays. This show is presented in partnership with Respair Production & Media.

We get topical with our last episode of the year. Dame and Kiss welcome a couple other members of the Respair squad. The crew talks about a lil’ Luigi Mangione gossip, the inspiring abolitionist projects we’ve seen on the road this year, how Trump’s election win has impacted us all, and much much more. SHOW NOTES Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com CREDITS Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producer - Rocío Santos Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

We're excited to bring you this convo from this year's Socialism Conference, held in September 2024 here in Chicago! The last few years of political turmoil have unearthed the longstanding lack of public trust in the news media. As journalists who work in, outside and against legacy media, we had the opportunity to be in convo with some brilliant peers about the long and deep legacy of movement journalism that expands transformative, abolitionist, and antiracist movement building through truthful reporting. The session was captained by friend of the pod Lewis Wallace, whose book The View from Somewhere is a must-read about how the myth of journalistic objectivity harms journalists and community. We also were in convo with Clarissa Brooks, who is Editor-in-Chief of The Forge; and Ryan Sorrell, Founder & Publisher of the Kansas City Defender. Get in tune! SHOW NOTES Learn about Lewis Raven Wallace - https://www.lewispants.com/about Dig into The Forge - https://forgeorganizing.org/ Peep the KC Defender - https://kansascitydefender.com/ Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com CREDITS Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producer - Rocío Santos Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

This week we're digging in the AirGo crates and revisiting one of the most impactful moments in modern social movement history–the encampment at Standing Rock in 2016. Kiss and a cohort of other Chicago folks brought supplies from Freedom Square in November, and had the privilege to spend a few days there. Upon their return, Kiss sat down with Kristiana Colon, who had been with him on the trip, to talk about the experience. The episode also features selections from the podcast Voices of Standing Rock, reproduced with the creator's permission. SHOW NOTES: Listen to all of Voices of Standing Rock: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/voices-of-standing-rock/id1173368814 Get connected to Oceti Sakowin, a group that formed during the encampment and has led the fight for indigenous sovereignty and environmental justice: www.facebook.com/OcetiSakowinCamp

On this episode, the guys turn to legendary historian Rashid Khalidi to help parse and understand how we got here–a moment fourteen months into the escalation of genocidal violence perpetrated on the people and land of Palestine. The author of many books, including most recently The Hundred Years' War On Palestine, Prof. Khalidi talks about how he moves between the mind and body while witnessing and fighting against the destruction of his people, what he's learned from those who have engaged with his work, and how we must understand this escalation in the context of colonial violence and anticolonial struggle. SHOW NOTES Read The Hundred Years' War On Palestine - https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781627798556/thehundredyearswaronpalestine Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com CREDITS Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producer - Rocío Santos Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

In the fraught last week before the 2024 election, the guys search for some nuance with Maurice Mitchell, the National Director of the Working Families Party. A nationally-recognized social movement strategist, visionary leader in the Movement for Black Lives, and community organizer, Maurice breaks down the vision and approach of WFP’s strategy to electoral organizing and helps us parse the value and limitations of elections as a component of transformative change. We also learn that he is the cousin of the legendary MF DOOM–just a lil fun fact for y’all! SHOW NOTES Learn more about the WFP - https://workingfamilies.org/ Find your polling place in Chicago - https://chicagoelections.gov/voting/your-voter-information Check out the Injustice Watch Judicial Guide - https://interactives.injusticewatch.org/judicial-election-guide/2024-general/en/ Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com CREDITS Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producer - Rocío Santos Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

The guys welcome Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, a brilliant philosopher and movement thought leader, to the pod. Táíwò is the author of Reconsidering Reparations and Elite Capture, two staples of the emergent abolitionist canon that have helped shape emergent movement ideology over the last decade. He talks with Dame and Kiss about who we mean when we say "elite," how the debate around identity politics obscures the ways power is being consolidated against us, and how we all are constantly philosophizing in our work as changemakers and living, breathing humans. SHOW NOTES Get his books - http://www.olufemiotaiwo.com/ Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com CREDITS Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producer - Rocío Santos Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

The guys talk with Maya Dukmasova and Alejandra Cancino from Injustice Watch about their new multipart investigation The Tenant Trap. The series, which is available now and linked below, found that tenants are regularly facing eviction and informal displacement at buildings with histories of serious safety violations, while the court system puts property rights above the rights of the people who live there. We talk with the dynamic investigative duo about their learnings, the two-tiered system of eviction and foreclosure court proceedings, and some pathways to address this chronic disposal and disregard of renters across Chicago. SHOW NOTES Dig into the Tenant Trap - https://www.injusticewatch.org/projects/tenant-trap/ Check out Injustice Watch's Judicial Election Guide - https://interactives.injusticewatch.org/judicial-election-guide/2024-general/en/ Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com CREDITS Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producer - Rocío Santos Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

The guys keep it within the medium, chopping it up with award-winning journalist and storyteller Yohance Lacour. Yohance is the host of You Didn’t See Nothin’, a Peabody and Pulitzer-winning podcast about a 1997 hate crime on the South Side of Chicago that introduced him to the world of investigative journalism, examining how its ripple effects have shaped Lacour’s own life over the past quarter-century. We talk about his relationship to the wonderful and challenging medium of audio, what he’s learned from bringing this project into the world, and a slew of Chicago gems that help us all see our city a little deeper. SHOW NOTES Subscribe to You Didn’t See Nothin’ - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/you-didnt-see-nothin/id1662015767 Follow Yohance and discover his leatherwork - https://www.instagram.com/yohancelacour/ Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com CREDITS Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producer - Rocío Santos Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

The guys lock in with Prof. Lester Spence, whose decades of scholarship about Black politic-building, hip-hop, and the sociopolitical turn toward neoliberalism help all of us make sense of the contradictions our culture, political system, and economy pretend don't exist. He's the author of Stare In the Darkness: The Limits of Hip-hop and Black Politics (2011), and Knocking the Hustle: Against the Neoliberal Turn in Black Politics (2015). A longtime professor at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Lester breaks down how the turn toward neoliberalism affects all of us, the ways hip hop is still a battlefield for transformation of our culture, and much more. SHOW NOTES Get in tune with Lester - https://www.lesterspence.com/ Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com CREDITS Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producer - Rocío Santos Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

On this episode, the guys welcome writer John Perkins. Best known for his politically and socially significant text Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, in which he describes playing a role in a process of economic colonization of Third World countries on behalf of what he portrays as a cabal of corporations, banks, and the United States government, John discusses how we can forge new systems of being and creating that prioritize long-term benefits for all life on the planet. He also breaks down the five questions that can help each of us as we figure out how to take action to transform our world. SHOW NOTES Get Confessions of an Economic Hitman - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/726382/confessions-of-an-economic-hit-man-3rd-edition-by-john-perkins/ Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com CREDITS Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producer - Rocío Santos Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Sometimes a simple title doesn't even come close to encapsulating who someone is or why they are important to the fabric of our city. This episode's guest Eric Williams is definitely one of those people. He is the owner of The Silver Room, a Chicago institution and brand whose mission is to create a global community through art and culture, as well as the owner of delicious South Side restaurant Bronzeville Winery. He talks with the guys about creating the iconic Silver Room Block Party (one of the most remarkable cultural gatherings in Chicago history), his long path from sidewalk salesman to space-builder and curator, and the tenuous relationship between building for his people and participating in capitalism. SHOW NOTES Swing by the Silver Room - https://thesilverroom.com/pages/about-us Feast at the Bronzeville Winery - https://www.bronzevillewinery.com/ Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com CREDITS Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producer - Rocío Santos Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

This episode's guest is Rev. Tanya Lozano Washington, the co-founder of community health and care organization Healthy Hood Chicago. Tanya talks about how she came to understand the links between personal and communal health, the lineages she stewards as a member of one of Chicago's most impactful movement families, and the complicated relationships that generations of sacrifice to liberation create. SHOW NOTES Get in tune with Healthy Hood - https://www.healthyhoodchi.com/ Come to a Sunday Session - https://www.healthyhoodchi.com/sunday-sessionz Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com CREDITS Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producer - Rocío Santos Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

As Chicago gears up for the 2024 Democratic National Convention, we get in tune with movement lawyer and professor Sheila Bedi, who breaks down some of the changes in CPD policy that Chicagoans engaging in direct action should know about. We also talk about the beautiful, challenging, and important ways Sheila has provided care and protection for both organizers facing state repression and the family members of those who have been murdered by the police. Plus, some laughs through it all! SHOW NOTES NLG HOTLINE for DNC protest legal support - (872) 465 4244 Thread of support materials from NLG - https://x.com/NLGChicago/status/1823723532783886702 Get in tune with Sheila -https://www.law.northwestern.edu/faculty/profiles/sheilabedi/ Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com CREDITS Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producer - Rocío Santos Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

In this episode of AirGo, we sit down with State Senator Robert Peters for a deep dive into the current political landscape and the transformative initiatives he's championing. Senator Peters explores how he contributed to the abolition of cash bond in IL, his commitment to getting tangible policy passed in contribution to movement, and the approach of transformative incrementalism that can make participating in legislative process fruitful and worthwhile for those fighting for liberation. SHOW NOTES Get in tune with Robert - https://www.instagram.com/robertjamespeters Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com CREDITS Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producer - Rocío Santos Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Singer, songwriter, and dreamweaver Manasseh joins Dame and Kiss for this freewheeling kickback of an interview. A heartfelt vocalist with pipes that pierce through, Manasseh shares some vulnerable experiences that deromanticize the artist's life and show the day-to-day challenges of pursuing a life built around your craft. SHOW NOTES Get in tune with Manasseh - https://linktr.ee/yomanasseh Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com CREDITS Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producer - Rocío Santos Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

This episode we dig in the AirGo crates back to fall of 2019, when we had the joy of hosting a live episode of AirGo with the brilliant organizer Page May and multihyphenate musical superstar Akenya, who will be performing this weekend at the always chill and fun Pitchfork Festival right here in Chicago. Enjoy this goofy and wonderful live episode (featuring a cameo from a newborn kitten) and come through both Pitchfork and Akenya's official aftershow 7/18 at Constellation. SHOW NOTES Akenya's Pitchfork After-Show - https://www.instagram.com/p/C8uIwakg-No/?img_index=1 Lock in with Akenya - https://www.instagram.com/akenyamusic Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com CREDITS Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producer - Rocío Santos Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Grounded visionary and dope filmmaker Ashley O'Shay joins Dame and Kiss on this episode of AirGo. Ashley is the director of Unapologetic, an impactful and loving feature documentary capturing two fierce abolitionists whose upbringing and experiences shape their activism and views on Black liberation. The film premiered at the BlackStar Film Festival, broadcast on PBS POV, and was shortlisted for the International Documentary Association Awards. She's currently working on Southmont Drive, a film reflecting on the legacy of her family from Tuskegee, Alabama that's centered on her late grandfather and the 17 children he raised. She talks about the process of building trust with the folks she films, the learning curve of making a film in the midst of movement, and the fight to save her family home in Tuskegee. SHOW NOTES Watch Unapologetic - https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B09P5R5JQD/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r Support Southmont Drive - https://www.instagram.com/southmontdrivefilm/ Get in tune w/ Ashley - https://www.instagram.com/ashley.oshay/ Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com CREDITS Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producer - Ari Mejia Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

The guys head over to The.BlkRoom, a Chicago-based organization and co-creation studio facilitating opportunities for BIPOC artists and creatives across the city, to chat with the effervescent and protagonistic Senite! The vocalist, songwriter, and co-founder of this transformative community space talks about the grief rituals she's been moving through, the ways that exploitation in the music scene pushed her to step away for a while, and how she's finding her way back to the joy of creating. SHOW NOTES Tap in with The.BlkRoom - https://www.theblkroom.org/ Follow Senite - https://instagram.com/_senite Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com CREDITS Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producer - Rocío Santos Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles